


Desolate

by appleetun



Category: Hey! Say! JUMP
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Chaptered, Eventual Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Memory Loss, Mystery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:01:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27081607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/appleetun/pseuds/appleetun
Summary: After waking up in the middle of nowhere with no memory of how he got there, Yuto discovers the other seven men with him are just as eager to survive as he is. Will he ever go back to his normal life and remember everything? Or will he have to start over from scratch?
Relationships: Inoo Kei/Nakajima Yuto
Comments: 18
Kudos: 30





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Contains subjects that may be triggering in later chapters (violence, threats, etc).

Yuto slowly opened his eyes and found himself laying on the ground. He slowly sat up and looked around, starting to take in the surroundings of the unfamiliar environment he found himself in. _Where exactly was he?_ This was a place he didn’t recognise and most importantly, had no recollection of getting to. The only thing he appeared to remember about his life was his name. Although Yuto couldn’t tell what time it was, and he couldn’t find out even if he wanted to, he guessed it would be around late at night. It wasn’t dark enough that it was pitch-black, and the moonlight provided him with enough light to see his environment fairly clearly. What he could see was that he was in the middle of a dense, wooded area that appeared to stretch out for miles. 

Considering how he woke up in the middle of nowhere with no memory, Yuto didn’t feel too dazed or as if he’d been drugged so he pulled himself to his feet, immediately noticing he was wearing an entirely white outfit consisting of a white button-up shirt, white pants and even white shoes. Finding the situation even more strange as Yuto himself knew he wouldn’t dress in this kind of clothing, he decided the best thing to do was to see if he could find anyone else, or if he was there alone.

_‘This is so weird,’_ he thought to himself as he started to walk around, searching for any signs of another person. Although the darkness of the night didn’t help the situation he was in, he was confident he wasn’t there by himself and he needed to find them. 

“Hello?! Is anyone here?” Yuto yelled out as he continued his search for someone.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp object press against his neck and he froze in fear. At least he now knew he wasn’t the only one here.

“What’s your name?” asked a voice from behind Yuto, but he couldn’t recognise it. Not that it mattered anyway, as he had forgotten everything about his life before waking up.

“… Yuto,” he replied as he looked down nervously, noticing the object against his neck was a sharp blade. 

“What are you doing here? You didn’t bring me here, did you?” the same voice asked again, and Yuto was starting to sense some paranoia in his tone.

“No… I don’t know where we are,” Yuto replied, “I woke up here.”

The voice fell silent for a few moments, which left Yuto wondering what the person behind it was thinking until they eventually spoke up.

“Wait… so you also woke up here, with no memory of anything?”

Yuto nodded and felt the knife slowly come off his neck. He breathed a sigh of relief before turning around and facing a man who appeared to be older than him, wearing the same white clothing as him with light brown hair and a piercing gaze. The paranoia Yuto heard in his voice appeared to be slightly represented in his appearance too, as he was nervously looking around.

“Is that how you always greet new people?” Yuto folded his arms and stared at his attacker.

“Only people I don’t know when I wake up in a place I don’t know,” he rolled his eyes.

“Have you seen anyone else?”

“Not yet,” the man replied as he put the knife back into his pocket.

“Where did you even get that?” Yuto asked, genuinely curious as he hadn’t seen any items, let alone weapons during his search of the area so far.

“I found it when I woke up,” the man said as he started walking forward without warning, obviously growing bored with the conversation between him and Yuto. Yuto hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should follow him before deciding it was better than being all by himself.

“Can you at least tell me your name, since you know mine and you’re the only other person I’ve seen here?” Yuto asked as he caught up to the man and started to walk alongside him.

“You can call me Takaki...” he replied, still appearing to do his best to avoid conversation with Yuto.

“Okay… Takaki… do yo--”

Yuto was interrupted by Takaki turning sharply towards him and glaring at him.

“Just because I gave you my name doesn’t mean I trust you,” he said as he turned around and continued to walk.

Yuto rolled his eyes and followed him, “you don’t have to trust me. But I don’t know where I am, so I’m gonna stay with you.”

_‘Why’s he the nervous one? He’s the one with the weapon. He can protect himself whenever he—'_

“Hey, is anyone here?”

Yuto’s thoughts were interrupted by the voice of someone else shouting from the distance. Whoever it was, Yuto just felt relieved he wasn’t alone here with Takaki.

“Someone?”

Yuto and Takaki exchanged looks with each other as they ran towards the direction of the voice. As they came closer and started looking around, Yuto could see Takaki reach for his pocket out of the corner of his eye and glared at him.

“Are you serious?” he hissed, starting to feel even more uncomfortable that the only person who seemed to have a weapon was the one who was the most anxious, “not everyone here is trying to kill you.”

Takaki rolled his eyes and sighed, almost as if he was tired of listening to Yuto’s complaints even though Yuto was sure they’d only been together for a few minutes. The sound of footsteps came closer to them and eventually the people who were making it revealed themselves. They were three young men who, like Takaki, appeared to be around Yuto’s age and were also wearing the same white clothes. One of them was a very short man with dark hair who appeared to be around the same age as Yuto, while the other two appeared to be older than him. One man was only slightly taller than the very short man, who also had dark hair and a babyface. The last man was taller than the others, but not as tall as Yuto with blonde hair that’d been dyed many times.

“We’ve been walking for ages looking for others. Do you know where we are?” asked the man who was the second tallest.

“I don’t know,” Yuto replied, “we have no idea either...”

“So… you just woke up here too?” asked the smaller man who appeared to be around Yuto's age.

“Yeah...” Yuto sighed.

“And you don’t remember how you got here either?”

“No, I don’t remember anything before waking up…” Yuto said, becoming more and more confused at the situation as the minutes passed by. 

_‘Who are all these other people exactly and what are they doing here?’_

The smallest man smiled slightly towards Yuto, “well, I’m Chinen and this is Daiki and Hikaru,” he said as he pointed them out as they were introduced.

“I’m Yuto,” Yuto began, “and this is—”

“I’m Takaki,” Takaki interjected before Yuto could properly introduce him, catching him slightly off-guard.

“Okay, well first off, I think we need to find out what’s going on,” said Daiki as he scoped out the environment, but appeared to be just as lost as everyone else was.

The blonde-haired man that Yuto assumed was Hikaru pointed over to his right and started to walk in that direction, “maybe we should go this way.”

Yuto nodded in agreement and started to follow behind Hikaru and the others alongside Takaki. He knew there wasn’t much in the direction he had come from, and there wasn’t any point in going back so he might as well continue forward.

As the five men continued to walk around aimlessly without any sense of direction for minutes, Yuto was starting to wonder if they had become completely lost in this place until the silhouettes of two figures lying down on the ground made themselves apparent in the glistening moonlight. Upon seeing them, Yuto’s eyes widened and he ran past Hikaru, kneeling on the ground next to the unconscious men.

“Hey… are you okay?” he said as he started to shake the man who was closest to him.

Yuto was immediately taken in by the appearance of the man before him as his eyes started to flutter open and their eyes met. He appeared to be smaller than Yuto, but older than him with a mushroom haircut, full lips and a round face. And while Yuto hadn’t noticed taken particular notice of the white clothing on everyone else, it somehow made him look almost ethereal.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he replied as sat up and looked around with a confused expression on his face, “where am I?”

“That’s what we’re trying to work out,” Hikaru replied as he also looked around at their environment, trying to see if he could find anything but they still seemed to be surrounded by dense wood.

“What’s your name?” Yuto asked as he continued to look him over to make sure he wasn’t hurt or injured, but he didn’t appear to be. Nobody appeared to be.

“I’m Inoo,” he replied quietly, still appearing to be confused about the situation he found himself in.

The young man next to Inoo opened his eyes and started to look around at his surroundings too, appearing just as confused as Inoo was. Unlike Inoo, he appeared to be closer to Yuto’s age but only seemed to be around Daiki’s height, with light brown hair and pierced ears. And like everyone else Yuto had come across, he was also wearing the exact white clothing.

“Are you okay?” Yuto asked as he took his attention away from Inoo and focused it on the man who had just woken up.

“Yeah, I’m fine…” he said as he also slowly sat up and looked around, coming to the realisation that he was also in a place he didn’t recognise, “where am I?” 

“We don’t know,” Daiki replied as he walked over to both of the men and extended out a hand towards the one who was closer to Yuto’s age.

He accepted Daiki's request and pulled himself up, still looking around at the dense woods they were in and probably wondering what they were all doing here. Daiki then extended his hand towards Inoo, who also accepted and pulled himself up. Inoo however, started to brush debris off himself and was less concerned about his surroundings.

“I’m Yamada, by the way.”

Chinen pointed towards the group and introduced them one by one to Inoo and Yamada. Yamada nodded, appearing to take in the information Chinen was relaying to him and started to become curious about all seven of them, “so all of you woke up here too?”

“Yeah, we all don’t know what we’re doing here…” Yuto said, just noticing now that Takaki hadn’t said a word since they had discovered the two men or offered help. It was something that Yuto found slightly unnerving, as he had no idea if he was still nervous about being thrown into a foreign environment with strangers, or there was more to it. 

“I think we should go this way,” Hikaru pointed towards the way they were initially heading before they discovered Inoo and Yamada, “we can’t just stay out here all night.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” replied Yuto as he started to follow the group of now six men, plus him. Yuto observed Daiki, Chinen, Hikaru and Yamada starting a conversation amongst themselves about the weird setting they found themselves in and the dense, forested area they appeared to be in the middle of. He looked towards Inoo for potential conversation, but he had fallen completely quiet and was simply staring at the ground and fidgeting with the sleeves on his shirt. Feeling the sense of anxiety in the air surrounding Inoo, Yuto decided to take this chance to start talking to him.

“I’m still not sure why we’re here… this is so weird.”

Inoo didn’t respond and continued to stare at the ground as he walked. It was more than obvious to Yuto that he was overwhelmed by the situation he found himself in, but he was determined to be as understanding as he could.

“Look, I’ll do my best to figure out what’s going on here. I don’t know what it is myself... but I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Inoo continued to stay silent as if he were completely lost in his thoughts and not paying much attention to his surroundings. Yuto sighed and joined Inoo in becoming lost in his thoughts, feeling overwhelmed about the setting he was in. _What were they all doing here? Why here of all places? Why can nobody remember anything?_ They continued to walk in silence with only the chattering of Hikaru, Daiki, Yamada and Chinen echoing in the area when Inoo unexpectedly spoke up.

“So you’re... Yuto? Is that your name?”

Yuto turned to Inoo slightly in shock, surprised that Inoo was addressing him. But Inoo had a warm smile on his face that made him suddenly feel calm about their situation, so he smiled back. _Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad if he had someone by his side._

“Yeah, I’m Yuto.”

Inoo looked away from Yuto nervously and back down at the ground as they continued to walk.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Yuto.”

Yuto smiled to himself, feeling somewhat accomplished he’d made conversation with Inoo. His eyes briefly met with Takaki's, who appeared to have been listening to the entire dialogue between him and Inoo and he was slightly caught off-guard, wondering if he was the one being too paranoid now until Chinen spoke up.

“What’s this?”

Right before them was an area where eight wooden houses stood, which was the first indication of some possible civilisation in the area. It reminded Yuto a lot of the campsites he would go to when he was a kid. As all seven of them looked around and started analysing the structures they just discovered, an unfamiliar voice from behind them pulled them out of their train of thoughts.

“I was worried I was alone here, I’m so happy I found you guys.”

Yuto turned around to find another man standing behind him. He appeared to be older than him and had blonde hair with a warm smile. If Yuto had to guess, he would guess he’s around Takaki’s age.

“So… what are these?” Yuto asked as he looked around at the eight structures, still amazed at how it almost appeared they grew out of nowhere.

“I don’t know, I just woke up right here,” replied the man, who extended out a hand towards Yuto, “by the way, I’m Yabu.”

Yamada appeared to take initiative again and introduced Yabu to everyone.

“Have you had the chance to look around?” Daiki asked curiously.

“Not a whole lot, I just woke up about ten minutes ago on the ground.”

Yuto took this as a sign and immediately started to look around the area for any clues that could give them an idea about the reason why they’re there since nobody else appeared to know. He started to look on the doors and walk around the sides of the cabins, even searching the ground for the smallest hint that could help him out. After looking around the entrance of the third cabin, he noticed an envelope that was wedged between the door and pulled it out.

“What did you find?” asked Yamada as he walked over to Yuto and looked at the envelope.

Yuto opened the envelope slowly and looked down at the paper, reading it to himself and feeling slightly disappointed in what it said before reading it out loud to everyone.

“Eight of you have been selected to take part in this enlightening experience. You will live here for the next seven days. Everything will be provided for you, so there’s no need to worry.”

“Selected for what?” asked Daiki as he also walked towards Yuto and looked over at the letter, “is there any more to it?”

“No, that’s it,” replied Yuto, turning over the letter to see if there was anything written on the back but found it blank.

“That sounds weird,” Hikaru suggested, staring off into the distance, “I’m not sure what they mean by ‘everything will be provided to us',”

“Should we stay here then?” Chinen asked, looking around at the cabins that surrounded them, “I mean… I guess everything will be provided for us here and we don’t have to—"

The flow of Chinen’s conversation was interrupted by Takaki pointing towards the direction behind Yuto.

“No, what we should do is continue walking. We’ll eventually get out if we continue.”

Yuto merely looked towards Takaki and sighed, seeing how everyone had now fallen quiet and supposing he had to be the one to speak up, “we don’t know what’s out there. It could just be kilometres of forest.”

“That’s why we won’t know until we do it,” Takaki said, becoming more and more childlike as his impatience grew as he shoved Chinen forward a little, almost to encourage him.

“No, I agree with Yuto. It’s too risky, plus we seem to have everything here,” said Yamada, “If we’re going out into the wild, who knows what could happen. We could die out there.”

“Yeah, we have everything here. We shouldn’t go,” Hikaru folded his arms and looked towards Takaki.

Takaki shot Yuto a glare, seemingly annoyed that he had just won the popularity content amongst the group. Yuto’s eyes met Takaki’s and he immediately knew he was going to have an issue with Takaki for the next week, as long as they were sharing a living space. Taking a glance over the rest of the group, Yuto once again stopped on Inoo, who appeared to be reserved.

Besides working out the reason why all eight of them were there and why they couldn’t remember anything besides their names, Inoo was another mystery that Yuto wanted to solve. He had a shy side that intrigued Yuto and he had to find out more about him. 

_Would he be able to get Inoo to come out of his shell?_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contains subjects that may be triggering in later chapters (violence, threats, etc).

The harsh sunlight seeping in through the window stirred Yuto from his sleep and he looked around at the four walls of his cabin. The memories of last night coming flooding back to him and reality hit that this wasn’t a bad dream; he was here in this new place he didn’t know, with these people he didn’t know. He didn’t even remember falling asleep but knew he must’ve because he was in his bed. Yuto slowly got out of bed and noticed that there was a fresh set of the same white clothing he had found himself in the previous night folded neatly at the foot of his bed, making him feel slightly nervous about how it ultimately ended up there. But he decided to put those thoughts out of his mind and took the clothes, heading towards the bathroom.

After showering, Yuto stepped out of his cabin and looked around, expecting to find nobody but instead, found Yabu eating a bento box in an area with eight seats that all of them had appeared to overlook last night in the darkness. Yuto curiously walked over to Yabu, as Yabu hadn’t noticed him, but he slowly took notice and was caught off-guard.

“I’m sorry,” he said with a mouthful of rice, “I should’ve waited until everyone was awake.”

“No no, it’s okay,” Yuto said as he sat down opposite Yabu and eyed the food he was eating, now realising he couldn’t remember the last time he ate and he certainly knew didn’t eat last night, “where did you get that?”

“Over there,” Yabu said as he pointed over to a container over his shoulder, “there are all these bento boxes and they have everyone’s names on them.”

“Huh...” Yuto said curiously as he walked over to the container and looked for the bento box with his name on it. After looking under the one with ‘Arioka’ written on it, sure enough, he found it and opened it up, discovering an assortment of his favourite sashimi with rice. Yuto walked back over to where Yabu was sitting and started to eat with him.

“Did you get the same as me?” asked Yuto as he peered over to look at Yabu’s box.

“Nah, I got tamagoyaki. It’s my favourite.”

“I wonder why we've got our favourite things?” Yuto asked.

“I don’t know,” replied Yabu, appearing to stare into space for several seconds before looking back at Yuto, “so... did you find anything else about why we might be here?”

“Nothing really,” Yuto sighed, “I had a fresh set of clothes at the end of my bed when I woke up"

“Ah yeah, me too,” Yabu replied.

“This whole thing is so weird.”

“I guess whatever’s happening, they know our clothing sizes and what we like to eat,”

Yuto nodded, feeling slightly uneasy about someone strange to him knowing every detail about him, then looked back to Yabu, “by the way, did you find anything?”

“I walked around for a bit but couldn’t seem to find an entrance or exit in sight. It’s as if we were dumped in the middle of nowhere or something.”

“So, do you have a theory?” Yuto asked curiously.

“I don’t know... I’m just as confused as you are.”

Just as Yabu finished his sentence, Yuto heard the door to one of the cabins swing open and he peered over his shoulder, noticing it was Inoo. Seeing his features and how pretty he was in the daylight caught Yuto even more off guard and he immediately turned around, slightly blushing.

“Good morning,” said Yabu, “there should be a box with your name on it in that container over there.” 

Inoo didn’t say anything as he nervously went over to the container and picked out the bento box with his name on it, taking a seat next to Yuto.

“Did you sleep well?” Yuto asked as he turned to Inoo, but his question fell on deaf ears and he turned back to Yabu to continue the conversation. 

“I just... don’t understand why all our memories are gone besides our names, or why we’re here...” Yuto said, trying to make conversation with Yabu, who appeared to also be wanting to unravel this mystery.

Yuto heard two doors open and saw Yamada and Chinen exit their respective cabins. Chinen appeared to have a slightly worried look on his face as if something was on his mind and bothering him, while Yamada appeared to be carefree.

“There are boxes over there with your name on it,” said Yabu, pointing over to the container that held all of their boxes.

“Thank you,” replied Yamada as he took out the box with his name on it alongside Chinen and took the other seat besides Yuto.

“I wonder if I could guess what I have… I think I got sashimi,” Yamada said as he opened up his box and discovered sashimi that was neatly arranged.

“Wow, I was right.”

“Hey, you got the same as me,” Yuto said as he looked into the box that Yamada had received.

“You might be the only other one here who has the same as me,” replied Yamada as he took a bite out of his rice, “by the way, I don’t know if I properly introduced myself last night, but I’m Yamada. You’re Yuto, right?”

“That’s right,” Yuto replied, “No, I remember you from last night.”

The atmosphere seemed to fall silent as one of the doors to a cabin opened and Hikaru stepped out, making his way over to the container and taking out the box with his name on it. He then proceeded to take a seat next to Yabu and directly start a conversation with him. Yuto took a glance over at Chinen, who he couldn’t help but noticed hadn’t even opened up his bento box and was just staring at the ground.

“Are you feeling better now that you've rested?” asked Hikaru, taking a bite from his food.

“Yeah... I am,” replied Yabu, “we're still trying to work everything out. All of this is strange.”

“Is that so...” Hikaru mumbled, “well, I’m sure I speak for the others when I say I’m sure you’ll keep us safe,” he said with a smile.

“Thank you,” Yabu replied.

Realising Yabu and Hikaru were in their world as their conversation continued, Yuto turned to Inoo and tried to start his own.

“You haven’t eaten much,” said Yuto, looking down at Inoo’s box.

“...I’m not hungry,” replied Inoo, who was just running his chopsticks through his rice.

Inoo’s reply slightly surprised Yuto as he expected it to fall on deaf ears, so he tried to continue.

“I know your name is Inoo, but what’s your first name?”

Inoo didn’t answer and looked down, continuing to run his chopstick through the rice and ignore Yuto completely. As he observed the others, he noticed everyone else appeared to be silent except for Yabu and Hikaru who were now happily chatting away in their little world. It appeared that everyone was with them now, except for Daiki and Takaki. But Yuto felt that there wasn’t a need to go and wake them up. After all, he wasn’t even sure what the time was. 

All of a sudden, Chinen put his box down and stood up, starting to walk away, as if he had just reached a breaking point. 

“Where are you going?” asked Yamada as he started to follow Chinen, but Chinen didn’t stop and continued walking away. 

The atmosphere fell silent again as everyone was slightly startled by Chinen’s sudden departure and wondered what was going on.

All Yuto knew was that the next six days were going to be difficult to see through.

* * *

Yuto looked around at the night sky from the top of the hill near their cabins and sighed. He came up there looking for any possible sign that there was any sign of life besides the other seven strange men he was with, but there wasn’t. Not even a single light. Feeling somewhat defeated, Yuto made his way down the slope and towards the area of the cabins, heading to his cabin ready to go to bed. But he was interrupted by someone calling out to him.

“Oh? You’re still awake?” asked Chinen.

“Chinen? What are you doing up?” asked Yuto, slightly startled by his sudden appearance. 

“I need to talk to someone,” Chinen said, “can you follow me?”

Without saying anything more, Chinen took off behind his cabin. Curiosity got the best of Yuto and he sighed, following Chinen around the side of the cabin. Chinen looked around nervously, making sure they were out of earshot.

“What is it?” Yuto asked, “what are you so nervous about?”

Chinen bit his lip and put his hand in his pocket, pulling out a carefully folded piece of paper and giving it over to Yuto.

“Did you do this?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Yuto said as he opened up the paper and stared down at it. Similar to the note they had found the previous night, it was written in the same handwriting and ink. Even the paper appeared to be the same. Yuto read over the words, again and again, trying to grasp the meaning but it didn’t seem to stay in his mind.

_ Seven of you are genuine. One of you is deceitful. They know why you’re here. _

Yuto folded up the paper and handed it back to Chinen, who put it back in his pocket.

“Do you know what it means?” Chinen asked.

“This is my guess, but maybe it means someone is pretending to have their memory erased,” replied Yuto.

“That’s what I thought,” said Chinen as he looked towards the sky, then back down towards Yuto, “it’s not you, is it?”

“What?” Yuto said, slightly taken aback by Chinen’s accusation, “I don’t know anything about this. I just know what you’ve shown me now. Are you sure it’s not you?”

“Of course, it’s not me,” Chinen said, appearing to become flustered at the accusation, “I wouldn’t have told you if it was me, would I? I’m only going off--"

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry,” replied Yuto, trying to calm Chinen down, “where did you find this?”

“It was in my bedroom. When I woke up, it was just on the bedside table. Here, follow me,” Chinen said as he started to move towards the front of his cabin. 

Yuto rolled his eyes at Chinen’s suddenly rushing off again and followed him inside the cabin. Once he was inside, he eyed the surroundings very carefully. The extreme attention to detail intrigued Yuto, as it appeared to be almost identical to his room. He couldn’t even help but notice the red and green stitching on the bed sheets were the same as the one on his bed.

“This is where it was,” Chinen said, pointing to his bedside table and snapping Yuto back into reality, “I don’t know where it came from.”

“Have you told anyone else about this?” asked Yuto.

“No, you’re the only one I’ve told,” replied Chinen, “you were the first person I came across, so I thought I’d tell you.”

“I think it would be best not to tell anyone else about this. You never know what people could do with this information.”

Chinen raised his eyebrow at Yuto, “who are you referring to?”

“Just… be careful who you trust here, Chinen. Not everyone is good here.”

Chinen appeared to be confused as Yuto exited his cabin and started to walk towards his own. Was there any truth to what was written there? Was Chinen pulling a prank on him? Would they even know the answer--

“Hey, Yuto!” 

Yuto felt his chest tighten as he spun around quickly and found Yamada behind him.

“Oh my god, don’t scare me like that!” 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Yamada looked around at his surroundings, then back towards Yuto, “anyway, what are you doing out so late?”

“I just… I was just looking around and saw Chinen, but now I’m heading back…”

“Chinen?” Yamada asked curiously, “what did he say?”

“He didn’t say anything…” Yuto replied hesitantly, hoping to keep this between Chinen and himself.

“I see…” Yamada said, his thoughts appearing to stray.

“Hey, about this morning… how did you know what was in your bento box?”

“Huh?” Yamada appeared surprised by Yuto’s sudden question.

“You seemed to know what was in it before you opened it. How did you know?”

“Yuto, you’re being ridiculous…”

“I just want to know how you knew.”

“I heard you and Yabu talking about what you got, so I just guessed it would be my favourite thing too,” Yamada shrugged.

“It was a lucky guess then,” Yuto said as he folded his arms.

“Why are you being like this?”

“No reason,” Yuto replied, thinking about his conversation with Chinen earlier.

“Listen Yuto. You probably have a right to be paranoid. I mean, none of us know why we’re here and--"

“Do you?” Yuto interrupted.

“Huh?”

“Do you know why we're here?” Yuto said as he took a closer step towards Yamada.

Yamada rolled his eyes and shook his head. It was clear to Yuto that he was becoming more and more frustrated with his line of questioning and the tone in his voice.

“Okay, I’m fed up. I’m leaving if you’re gonna be like this,” He said, starting to storm off in the direction of his cabin.

Yuto didn’t bother trying to call out for him and sighed. Was he being too hard on Yamada, who was probably his only friend in the entire place they currently are? Or was he simply looking out for his safety and protecting himself first?

Yuto didn’t have the answers. 


	3. Chapter 3

Yuto opened his eyes and looked around his cabin, once again, finding himself in the same room with the same harsh sunlight illuminating through his window and waking him up. He was learning that he would be waking up to this same nightmare every morning and he couldn’t escape from it, no matter how hard he tried to find out the reason why he was in there with seven other men he didn’t know.

Laying on his bed for a few moments, the letter that Chinen had shown him the previous night was still on his mind. Was there actually someone amongst them who knew why they were there and had their memories still? Or was it just a trick to get them pitted against each other? Yuto had no idea what to think and his thoughts were driving him crazy.

After taking a shower and putting on the same set of white clothes he was presented with every morning, Yuto exited his cabin and saw almost everyone around the general campsite area except Takaki making general chatter except for Inoo, as per usual. Trying to avoid eye contact with everyone, Yuto made his way over to the box that held everyone’s containers, finding his own and picking out. With the letter that Chinen had shown him still at the forefront of his mind, Yuto then made his way over to the group.

“You’re up early today,” Daiki said as he smiled towards Yuto.

“How do you know? Do you know what time it is?” Yuto snapped towards Daiki.

The group quickly fell silent at Yuto’s sudden outburst as he took a seat next to Inoo. He looked down at his box, feeling all eyes on him and still avoiding eye contact with everyone..

“Are you… okay?” asked Yabu.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep well, sorry,” Yuto replied sheepishly as he continued to run his chopsticks through the rice, feeling his appetite disappear right in front of him.

The group slowly went back to their individual conversations, leaving Yuto and Inoo in complete silence.

“Did you get the same as yesterday?” Yuto asked, trying to make conversation with Inoo, but as usual, Inoo simply nodded and didn’t answer him. In fact, Yuto had just realised that Inoo hadn’t seemed to say much to him since the night they had arrived and wondered if he had made much conversation with anyone else.

“Does anyone have a theory about where these come from?” asked Hikaru, tilting his head in direction of the container, “it seems as if they’re placed here magically every day, like our clothes. It’s really strange.”

“Do you think it’s one of us? I mean, it could be you for all I know,” Yuto said without thinking. 

Everyone looked towards Yuto with shock, similar to the scene that had played out a few moments ago. Without a second thought, Yamada sighed and grabbed Yuto by the hand.

“I need to talk to you,” Yamada grumbled as he started to pull him away from the general area where all the cabins were and towards the area of dense woods. As they continued to walk, Yuto wondered how far away Yamada was taking him but decided to just go along with him. After about a minute of walking through the brush forest, Yamada had taken him far away from the campsite and up a hill that overlooked the general area. Yuto was unaware that this place existed until now and stared out over the scenery, still hoping to find any hint of something that indicated where they were or if there was a way to exit, but couldn’t find anything. It was just woods as far as he could see. Yuto was so concentrated on the scenery before him that he didn’t even notice Yamada let go of his hand.

“Yuto, you need to tell me what’s going on. You’ve been acting weird since last night,” Yamada said as he folded his arms.

Yuto stopped looking towards the view and faced towards Yamada, feeling conflicted about whether or not to keep the talk he had with Chinen the previous night a secret or not but ultimately decided to keep his word.

“I… can’t tell you,” he sighed, “I’m really sorry, but I promised I wouldn--”

“If it’s about that note Chinen got, you can talk to me about it. I know about it,” Yamada interrupted.

Yamada’s admission surprised Yuto and he looked down towards the ground, feeling slightly embarrassed about his earlier outbursts.

“He told me not to tell anyone, that was all,” Yuto said awkwardly.

“Really?” replied Yamada, appearing somewhat surprised by what he was just told, “he told me the moment he found it in the morning. He was pretty disturbed by it.”

Yuto bit his lip, now unsure of who to believe and if he could fully trust Chinen’s words. Did Chinen even find that letter, or did he write it himself?

Yamada took a step towards Yuto and sighed, “you don’t have to trust me, or you can think I’m the one that still remembers everything, I don’t mind. I just don’t want you to become too paranoid about this. You don’t know if this is even true and it might even be an attempt by... well… I guess the people who put us here… to pit us against each other.”

Yuto nodded, letting Yamada’s words comfort him for a split second, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that the letter was actually true. 

“You and Chinen are the few people I trust here. I don’t want you to worry about this too much, because it’s clearly distressing you,” Yamada continued. 

Both of them stayed in silence for a few seconds while Yuto thought deeply about what Yamada had said, before looking back to him and smiling. Deep down, he knew Yamada was right and he didn’t want this to consume his thoughts.

“I trust you,” replied Yuto, “I don’t think you have anything to do with this whole thing.” 

Yamada smiled back at Yuto with a sense of relief. Yuto was feeling a little happy there was someone at least one other person in this place he could rely on besides himself.

“Has Inoo said anything to you?” Yuto asked curiously.

“Inoo? Is he the quiet guy with the mushroom haircut? I forget he’s here most of the time,” Yamada replied, somewhat puzzled by Yuto’s question, “I think you’re the only one who actually tries to speak to him.”

Yuto nodded, now thinking about what Yamada had said about Inoo. Was he really the only one he’d spoken to here? That made him feel a little better and maybe Inoo wasn’t ignoring him.

“C’mon, let's get back to the others before they wonder where we are,” said Yamada.

“Sure.”

Yamada started to make his way back to the general area where the cabins were situated and Yuto followed behind him, neither of them speaking a word to each other. They were almost back at the general area where everyone congregated until they were startled by a sudden voice that called out to them. 

“Hey, Yuto. I want to talk to you.”

Yuto looked up to see Takaki leaning against the back wall of the cabin he believed belonged to Yabu. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should even talk to Takaki given how treated him when they first met, but ultimately decided to see what he had to say and hear him out.

“I’ll see you in a little bit,” Yuto said to Yamada as he watched Yamada nod and start to walk away.

Takaki watched as Yuto walked closer and waited until Yamada was out of sight before talking to him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” asked Takaki as he moved closer to Yuto, closing the gap between them completely which made Yuto slightly nervous.

“I don’t know what you mean…” Yuto replied hesitantly as he took a step back to widen the distance.

“Don’t play dumb with me,” said Takaki, taking no notice of Yuto and continuing to walk towards him, “I know you like both, Yamada and Inoo, so why are you playing with both of them?”

“What?” Yuto blurted out, completely surprised by Takaki’s question, “Yamada’s just a friend… and Inoo… he doesn’t seem to be interested in me,” Yuto rolled his eyes, feeling slightly irritated that Takaki appeared to be watching his every move, “now… is this all you had to say? Because this is something I don’t wanna be interrogated about.”

Yuto started to walk away from Takaki but felt himself quickly forced back when Takaki held onto his arm and shoved him against the wall of the cabin.

“What the hell?” Yuto shouted as he tried to push Takaki off, but Takaki had him held firm against the wall.

“I heard there’s someone who knows why we’re here and they don’t have their memories gone. Do you know anything about this?” asked Takaki, continuing to make eye contact with Yuto and his stare never wavering. 

Yuto bit his lip and looked down towards the ground, feeling nervous about the look Takaki was giving him, it was almost like he was staring right through him. Of course, he knew what Chinen had told him, but he did want to keep his word, and he especially didn’t want Takaki of all people to know what he knew and did his best to hide it.

“No, I don’t know anything about this,” Yuto replied cautiously.

“Are you sure?” Takaki asked, “I heard it from Daiki,”

Yuto continued to stare nervously at the ground, still trying to avoid Takaki. Had Chinen told every one of them individually? Why did Yamada appear to know, and now Daiki? Who else knew about it? Was Chinen actually the one who was lying?

“And I’m sure it’s you.”

Yuto’s thoughts were interrupted by Takaki’s sudden accusation.

“What?” Yuto asked and looked up at Takaki, “it’s not me. I don’t know anything about the situation we’re in. Don’t be ridiculous!” 

“This is why you were the first person I came across, and why you feel comfortable enough to like someone here when everyone else is uncomfortable.”

Feeling slightly taken aback by Takaki’s claim, Yuto decided to snap back with his own.

“How do I know it’s not you?”

“Huh?” replied Takaki, appearing to be caught slightly off-guard by Yuto's accusation.

“You heard me! How do I know you’re not the person who’s pretending to go along with everything? I mean… you’re always so on edge about everything. Are you sure it’s because you don’t want to be found out? So you’re just constantly para--

Before Yuto could finish his sentence, Takaki forcefully held onto his collar and threw him back against the wall. However, Yuto managed to gather together enough strength to shove him off.

“Stop it!” Yuto shouted, “What are you doing?”

Those actions didn’t seem to deter Takaki or do anything to calm his mood as Yuto felt himself shoved even more forcefully against the wall of the cabin and his head knocked against the wood particularly hard. Yuto let out an audible groan and was caught off-guard by the sudden hit, leaving him slightly stunned. He didn’t even notice Takaki’s hands close in around his neck until he heard someone calling out to them.

“Hey! Takaki! What are you doing?”

Yuto looked up to find Daiki looking at both of them.

Takaki immediately removed his hands from Yuto’s neck and came off him completely. Without saying a word, he walked off towards the general area where everyone was gathering. Yuto looked at Daiki as he made his way towards him, still feeling slightly light-headed from the blow to his head.

“Are you okay?” asked Daiki.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Yuto replied as he rubbed his head.

“Was he…?” Daiki didn’t need to continue his question for Yuto to understand what he was going to ask.

“Don’t worry, just pretend you saw nothing,” Yuto said as he started to walk to the general area where everyone was seated. After arriving, he was immediately greeted by Yamada who walked up to him.

“I was wondering where you got to…” Yamada said.

“Ah yeah, I was just… talking to Takaki,” Yuto replied sheepishly. 

“Are you okay? Did something happen?” Yamada asked, sensing something slightly off about Yuto’s demeanor. 

Yuto looked over to Takaki, who he noticed was glaring at the two of them with intensity. Yamada realised that Yuto was no longer looking at him and tried to see where he was looking, but Yuto took notice and tried to draw Yamada’s attention away from Takaki. Yuto also couldn’t help but take a quick glance at Daiki, who was eyeing them all cautiously and appearing to monitor the situation.

“Ah, no reason, really…” said Yuto as he started to straighten his hair out, “did you wait for me? You didn’t have to…” 

“I wanted to wait for you…” said Yamada as he picked up Yuto’s bento box and handed it to him.

Yuto stared down at it for a few seconds and put the lid on it, “I don’t think I’m hungry…” 

He looked over at Inoo, who was still quiet and didn’t appear to be concerned about the situation that was happening around him.

“Is Yuto gonna be the first one to go crazy here?” asked Chinen with a slight smirk on his face.

“I’m not going crazy,” replied Yuto.

Or was he going crazy? Yuto really didn’t know the answer to that question anymore.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains implied sexual assault that might be triggering.

After waking up in the same place for what counted was the fourth day in a row, Yuto was starting to slightly become accustomed to the new way of life he and the other seven men had forged out for themselves out of necessity. In the mornings, they would all receive their bento boxes and eat them, while the rest of the day was usually left up to the individual to decide what to do. Some of them tried to make friends, some of them explored the situation they were in and tried to gain a better understanding of what was going on, some preferred to be entirely alone. Yuto found he usually fell into the second category, but today was a bit different.

Today, Yuto found himself third wheeling in a conversation between Hikaru and Yabu, who appeared to be off in their own world. This was a slightly different routine Yuto was used to in the late afternoon, as he usually preferred to be by himself. It didn’t help much that Inoo was also there and not responding to him when he'd ask questions, as was typically the case. Yuto was starting to wonder why he was trying so hard with Inoo when he didn’t appear to show much interest in his surroundings or in him. But his apathy was also something that intrigued Yuto, and he couldn’t help but be interested in him, even if Inoo didn’t appear to show much interest.

“Do you have a theory about why we're here? Yuto asked Inoo, shifting his focus from listening in on the conversation between Hikaru and Yabu and looked towards him.

As he had been previously, Inoo was silent in response to Yuto’s question.

Hikaru completely stopped his conversation with Yabu and looked towards the other two men.

“Inoo, I want your help with something. Are you able to come with me?” he asked as he nodded towards the cabins.

Inoo didn’t reply or even nod his head. He simply stood up and walked towards the cabin with Hikaru. Taking this as an opportunity to pry information from Yabu, someone who Yuto considered the most knowledgeable amongst all seven of them, Yuto decided to pick his mind.

“What are you thinking this is? Any thoughts?”

Yabu leaned back on the chair he was sitting on and looked towards Yuto.

“Well... whoever is in charge of this wants us to stay alive. They provided us with comfort, food and clothing,” Yabu started, “they don’t want us to die, so it’s not some kind of survival situation… it’s different.”

Yuto started thinking carefully about what Yabu said, “how do you think we were brought here?”

“I dunno… probably drugs. That’s what I guess.”

“Drugs?” asked Yuto, feeling slightly unnerved by what Yabu said.

“Well, I don’t know how else they got us here,” Yabu said, looking up towards the sky, “we had no injuries and I don’t remember how we got here... it would make sense if it were drugs...”

“Is that why I can’t remember my life before this happened?” Yuto asked.

“I also want to know,” Yabu said, “I want to know if I was in a relationship with someone…”

“You like Hikaru, don’t you?” Yuto asked, trying to make a connection between what Yabu had just said.

“I actually do,” replied Yabu, “I know it sounds silly, but he’s the only one here that really makes me forget the situation we’re in. He makes me feel like we’re in a somewhat normal place and that everything’s gonna be okay… I guess that sounds weird...”

“No, I completely get it,” said Yuto, thinking of the way Inoo had been making him feel.

“Is that Inoo for you?” Yabu asked, appearing to also make a connection.

Yuto nodded.

“But he doesn’t talk to anyone,” replied Yabu, “he’s spoken to you like, maybe once or twice and that’s all I’ve really noticed.”

“He doesn’t have to talk to me for me to feel like that,” Yuto responded, “I feel like just being around him is enough…”

Feeling the conversation come to an end, Yabu looked over towards the area of the cabins and sighed, “Are you able to check on Hikaru and see what he’s doing? He gets distracted easily… I don’t know what he’s up to…”

Yuto wasn’t sure if Yabu was telling the truth or he thought the conversation was becoming too mushy, but he decided to listen to him and stood up.

“Sure.”

Yuto started to walk towards the area of the cabins. Once he arrived, he started to peek around the corner of every cabin and through the windows, wondering where Inoo and Hikaru had disappeared to, feeling a pit form in his stomach as the minutes went by without a sign of any of them.

“Inoo?” Yuto called out as he continued his search, turning around the corner of Daiki’s cabin on the end and was shocked by what he saw before him.

Hikaru had Inoo pressed against the wall and his shirt was half-way unbuttoned. Yuto could feel his chest tighten as he came to realise that this might be a situation Inoo had no control over and moved quickly to intervene.

“Hikaru! What are you doing?” Yuto yelled as he wrapped his arms around the older man’s waist and pulled him away from Inoo.

“Let go!” Hikaru shouted as he tried to escape from Yuto’s grasp, but Yuto kept a firm hold on him and continued to pull him away from Inoo. Yuto didn’t even consider himself someone who was particularly athletic or strong, but he was somehow able to keep his hold on Hikaru.

Without any indication, Hikaru suddenly elbowed Yuto in his chest, making Yuto release his grip around his waist. As he temporarily lost his footing, Yuto didn’t even notice Hikaru’s fist interlock with his face. The pain was immediate and Yuto stumbled backwards. Putting his hand up to his face, Yuto realised he was bleeding from his nose and looked towards Hikaru.

“What the hell is your problem?!”

Suddenly realising the gravity of his actions, Hikaru appeared to snap back into reality and stared back at Yuto.

“I’m sorry...”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Yuto... I’m...”

Without hesitating, Yuto took hold of Inoo’s hand and started to pull him away from the commotion that had just taken place. Inoo was still staying silent and not speaking a word, which Yuto guessed was also partly because he was still trying to process the scene that had just happened. Trying to avoid contact with everyone was difficult, but they managed to arrive at Yuto’s cabin without encountering anyone else and Yuto dragged Inoo inside, closing the door firmly shut behind him and hoping for some peace away from everyone.

“Are you okay?” Yuto asked as he started buttoning up Inoo’s shirt. 

“... are you?” Inoo replied in a voice that was as quiet and meek as it previously was before he looked towards Yuto, “you need to do something about your face.”

“What’s wrong with my face?”

Inoo pointed towards his own nose and tapped it.

Yuto had completely forgotten about the blood that had been slowly dripping from his nose as he had been more concerned about Inoo. Feeling slightly embarrassed, he rushed to the bathroom and pulled a towel off the rack, running it under the warm tap water for a few moments before applying it to his nose and trying to get rid of as much blood as possible. After a minute, Yuto exited the bathroom with the towel still held up to his nose. He noticed Inoo had taken a seat on the floor, so Yuto sat down in front of him.

“Is that better?” Yuto asked.

Inoo nodded and stared closer at Yuto’s face, only really taking notice now of how handsome he appeared to be. Yuto noticed Inoo staring at him and could feel himself turn slightly red as his eyes continued to stay on him.

“By the way, I don’t think there’s actually anything wrong with your face,” said Inoo.

Yuto could feel himself become even more embarrassed as he tried to ignore what Inoo said and focus on his current condition instead.

“Are you feeling better? What happened with Hikaru?”

Yuto could see Inoo’s mood drop as soon as he asked that question, but he was curious to know what took place between them.

And when Inoo didn’t answer his question, Yuto decided to probe a bit more.

“He didn’t do much more than that, right?”

Yuto bit his lip as he waited for Inoo’s answer, but it seemed his inquisitive side appeared to annoy Inoo.

“Why do you care so much?”

Yuto was slightly surprised by the reaction from Inoo.

“What do you mean?” he asked. 

“Why do you care so much? I mean… you talk so much to me, but I’m not interesting in the slightest. I don’t even talk to you.”

Yuto sighed and readjusted his sitting position on the floor.

“I think you’re the most interesting person here...” he replied, “you’re intriguing... you intrigued me from the moment I saw you. You’re not like the other people here.”

Inoo looked at Yuto slightly before turning away and looking at the floor. The atmosphere fell silent for a few moments before Yuto decided to speak up again.

“…plus, I was attacked like you,” Yuto said quietly.

“What?” Inoo asked, looking back at Yuto with a bit of shock.

“Well, I don’t want to say it was like you, but I guess I know what it’s like to get attacked and feel vulnerable here...”

“Something happened to you? But you’re so… different to me…”

“Yeah, well… these guys don’t care about that. Nobody knows what’s going on, everyone’s just on edge… I don’t even know if it’s true if there’s someone among us who is pretending to know less… or that was something that was just started by Chinen.”

Inoo nodded, appearing to take in the information Yuto said without asking any further questions. Yuto wasn’t even sure if Inoo was aware of Chinen’s note, but it seemed to be common knowledge at this point.

“So… should I trust you then?” Inoo asked.

“You don’t have to trust me,” Yuto said as he let out a sigh, “I’m just letting you know what—"

“You’re the only one here who’s had my back and bothered to talk to me. I trust you.”

The conversation fell silent once again until Yuto piped up with a suggestion.

“Stay here tonight.”

Inoo was slightly taken aback by Yuto’s request.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Yuto hesitated for several seconds before he came out with his sentence.

“I… just don’t want you going back out there tonight. Not with people like Hikaru… and Takaki… I don’t want something to happen to you.”

“Is Takaki the one who attacked you?” Inoo asked.

“Yes, you can’t trust him,” Yuto replied, “He’s never been good to me. Just watch out for him.”

Yuto’s answer appeared to fall on deaf ears as Inoo started looking around the cabin curiously.

“But… where will I stay?” he said as he turned back to Yuto.

“Just sleep in the same bed as me,” Yuto quickly suggested.

“I…”

“Don’t worry, it’s not like we’re boyfriends or anything…”

“Okay then…” said Inoo as he nervously looked around the cabin, “What about clothes?”

“Just sleep in what you’re wearing, I would give you my pair, but I feel that I need it more,” he said, pointing towards his white shirt with bloodstains on it and let out a small smile.

“No, I understand,” Inoo said, smiling back at Yuto too. Yuto wondered if this was the first time he’d seen Inoo smile in four days and he was sure it was.

“That’s gonna leave a bruise tomorrow,” Inoo said, “does it hurt?” he asked as he approached Yuto and gently touched his nose.

Surprised by Inoo’s actions, Yuto hesitated for a moment before answering, feeling himself already go shy at Inoo’s light touch on his face.

“No, not really…” he mumbled, trying to hide the feeling of butterflies rising in his chest. 

“I’m sorry he hurt you,” said Inoo.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Yuto, “it wasn’t your fault.”

Yuto once again felt the conversation die down into an awkward air with silence from both ends for a few moments.

“Anyway, I’m gonna have a shower,” Yuto said as he swiftly gathered up the fresh set of folded night clothes, avoiding eye contact with Inoo completely and headed straight for the bathroom.

Once Yuto entered the bathroom, he turned the knob of the shower so the water could hit the tiles and stared at himself in the mirror, coming to terms with what had just taken place. 

Had all of that really just happened? 

That was the question that was flying around Yuto’s head. Was Inoo really in his room and talking to him? Was he really complimenting him? Was he really touching him? Was he really about to sleep in the same bed as him?

Why did all of this make him so nervous?

Yuto bit down on his lip and sighed, undoing the buttons on his shirt one by one and taking it off. He examined himself in the mirror before him as something caught his eye that he hadn’t noticed before.

A light bruise and needle mark on his upper right arm.

Lightly pressing on it, Yuto realised it was only a few days old and his eyes grew wide.

Was Yabu right? Had they been drugged and taken here?


	5. Chapter 5

“Uh… Yuto…”

Yuto stirred from his sleep after hearing those words. He usually wasn’t aware of anyone else in the cabin besides him, but this morning was different. Last night, he’d managed to convince Inoo to stay with him and it had somehow worked. He looked down and realised he had his arms around Inoo’s waist.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t realise,” Yuto mumbled, waking up almost instantly as he quickly removed his arms.

“It’s okay,” Inoo replied as he let out a small giggle as he turned to face Yuto and started to tidy up the hair around his face, “you know, you’re actually pretty cute when you’re flustered.”

Yuto bit his lip nervously, unsure what to say back to Inoo.

Inoo noticed Yuto’s reaction and smiled, “that actually didn’t leave as big of a bruise as I thought it would,” he said as he moved his fingers towards Yuto’s nose, lightly touching it, “it’s only small.”

Yuto smiled back at Inoo, wishing they could stay in this position forever but knew the day had to get started soon and they had to leave.

Still, he enjoyed this moment for a few minutes longer, in awe that he had managed to actually get this far with Inoo when this time yesterday, Inoo had barely spoken to him.

“I should have a shower,” Yuto said, still gazing straight at Inoo, “I guess you should have one too.”

“Okay,” Inoo replied as he got out of the bed, Yuto’s eyes never once shifting from him.

Just before he was about to turn the door handle, Inoo turned back to Yuto and smiled at him.

“By the way, thanks for making me feel better.”

Yuto could feel himself turn slightly embarrassed again at the compliment from Inoo, as he bashfully turned the smile.

As Inoo exited the cabin, Yuto immediately stepped out of bed and grabbed his pair of clean day clothes that were folded in the usual spot they had been placed in over the last four days and headed towards the bathroom. He unbuttoned his shirt again and took it off, looking at the needle mark he had discovered last night and ran his fingers on along it, examining it and checking it was actually there. 

It was.

_ What exactly was going on here? Would he ever find out? _

As Yuto exited his cabin and walked towards the rest of the group, he saw the group fall silent and all eyes on him. As was his normal routine, he picked up the bento box with his name on it and took a seat next to Yamada. He looked around, noticing Inoo was still not out of his cabin and realised the air had turned tense.

“What are you looking at me for?” asked Yuto, still noticing everyone had their eyes on him except Hikaru, who was running his chopsticks through his food and staring down at it. 

“Don’t be stupid, Yuto,” Yamada said, “we saw Inoo leave your cabin.”

“It’s… not like that,” Yuto replied, feeling himself turn red.

“You don’t need to be embarrassed by anything,” said Daiki.

“I’m not… we didn’t do anything,” Yuto said, turning his focus back to his food.

“By the way, what happened to your face?” asked Yabu.

Yuto immediately put his hand up to his nose in surprise, amazed that the others had taken notice of it since he thought it wasn’t very noticeable.

“Did you and Inoo have a fight?” Chinen giggled.

“No, you idiot,” Yuto said, looking at Hikaru who was staring back at him intently, almost as if he was saying not to speak a word about what had happened, “I… accidentally hit it on the door.”

“Were you distracted by Inoo?” Chinen said with another giggle.

Yuto rolled his eyes, “God, you’re annoying.”

The door to Inoo’s cabin opened and he stepped out quietly. Without making a sound, he took a seat next to Yabu and looked over at Yuto with a small smile on his face.

“What did you guys get up to last night?” asked Takaki, taking notice of Inoo’s smile.

Yuto was surprised by Takaki’s sudden question and glared at him, secretly wanting nothing more than him to stay out of his business.

“Oh… nothing. I just stayed with Yuto, but nothing happened,” Inoo said as he continued to smile towards Yuto, who was still glaring in their direction and appearing to not get the message.

“You didn’t even kiss or do anything?”

Inoo shook his head.

“So… why did you stay the night if you didn’t do anything?”

“I just need to get something,” Yuto said as he sat up and he put down his untouched food, walking back towards his cabin. He was feeling the need to escape everyone and Takaki’s in particular, incessant questioning. Shutting the door to his cabin, he hoped he could get a small break from the group.

Without a further word said between anyone, Hikaru followed behind Yuto and opened up the door to his cabin.

“Yuto, what’s—”

“Hikaru?” Yuto asked with a raised voice as he turned around to face him, “get out! You’re the last person I want in here!”

“Quiet!” Hikaru hushed as he closed the door behind him, “I’m just checking to see if you’re alright…”

“What happened yesterday? Why were you—" Yuto started, but was immediately cut off.

“Can you please stop talking about it? I don’t want anyone finding out about that…”

“Oh yeah, what would Yabu think?” Yuto asked as he folded his arms, “I’m sure he wouldn’t be too happy that you’re trying to get with someone else…”

“I’m really sorry,” said Hikaru, “I didn’t mean anything by it…”

“Well… what did you mean by it then?” Yuto asked, still folding his arms and now glaring at Hikaru.

Hikaru hesitated for a moment before continuing to speak.

“I just wanted to say thank you for avoiding the issue…” 

“Can you please leave?” asked Yuto as he pointed towards the door, “if you’re not gonna explain anything, just go!”

Hikaru sighed and opened up the door, heading back towards the group as he stepped out.

\---

Yuto decided to stay in his cabin as the day progressed, doing his best to avoid contact with everyone outside and trying to find ways to occupy his time. Everyone had annoyed him this morning. Why was everyone prying into his business like that? Why was Takaki trying to get info about Inoo? Why was Hikaru even bothering with trying to smooth things over when he lost control yesterday? 

The day was finally starting to dim and Yuto hadn’t joined the rest of the group for dinner. He was also still wondering about the days he had left. Only two remained, but would they really be left here? Where would they even go after all of this is over?

“Yuto, why are you avoiding everyone? I was worried--" Yamada said as he opened up the door abruptly, interrupting Yuto’s thoughts.

Yuto noticed Yamada entering, almost slightly relieved to see someone else who wasn’t Hikaru, “Yamada… I need to talk to you,” 

“Sure,” Yamada said as he closed the door behind him.

Yuto rolled up his sleeve to show off the needle mark on his upper arm, “is this something you have too?” he asked.

Yamada looked at the mark curiously and rolled up his sleeve. Sure enough, there was an almost identical mark on his shoulder, very similar to the one Yuto had.

“What does this mean?” Yamada asked with a slightly panicked tone.

“I don’t know…” Yuto replied as he rolled down his sleeve.

“Wait… were we taken here against our will?” he asked.

“I really don’t know,” replied Yuto, “I don’t know if this is something I should worry about… I don’t remember anything before waking up here, and now this…”

“I don’t remember feeling strange when I woke up here…” said Yamada, trying to connect everything they currently knew.

“But we just woke up here and don’t remember anything, right?” said Yuto.

The door to Yuto’s cabin opened unexpectedly and Inoo stepped in.

“Oh, I didn’t realise I was interrupting something…” Inoo said.

“No, it’s okay,” Yamada replied hesitantly, aware of the tension that had immediately come in the room alongside Inoo, “I was just about to leave anyway.”

Yamada looked back at Yuto, “try not to worry too much,” he said as he closed the door behind him.

Inoo didn’t appear to pay much attention to Yamada and walked towards Yuto.

“I haven’t seen you all day…”

“Yeah… well, I haven’t really felt like talking to anyone…” said Yuto as he sat down on his bed, staring at the ground.

Inoo followed Yuto and took a seat beside him, “is it something you wanna talk about?” he asked.

“No, not really…” Yuto muttered.

“… do you mind if I stay here tonight?” Inoo said, slightly surprising Yuto in the process.

“Again?” Yuto asked as he looked towards Inoo, “why?”

“Well, last night you made me feel better,” he said as he returned the look, “I wanna make you feel better.”

Yuto smiled at Inoo’s comforting words, feeling slightly better about the situation.

“By the way, what were you talking with Yamada about?” asked Inoo as he looked at Yuto with a concerned look.

Yuto sighed, debating for a moment whether or not to show Inoo what had been consuming his mind over the last night but ultimately decided to, rolling up his shirt sleeve and pointing out the needle mark which was still visible.

“Do you have this?”

Inoo hesitated for a moment before rolling up the sleeve on his right arm and looking at it, but there was no sign of any needle mark.

“I don’t have one,” Inoo said with a shrug.

“What about your other arm?”

Inoo pulled up the sleeve of his other arm, also finding there was no needle mark there.

“Wait… why don’t you have anything?” Yuto asked with a concerned tone, “are you—”

“Yuto…” Inoo said as he wrapped his arms around Yuto’s waist and pulled him into a hug, “you worry way too much about the world around you.”

Inoo pulled back from Yuto and stared at him deeply, “we only have two more days like this, and I don’t know if I’m gonna see you again afterwards… can’t we just enjoy it together without you worrying about everything?” 

But Yuto couldn’t help but worry.

Why didn’t Inoo have a mark? Surely, he wasn’t the one here who still had memories... 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: This chapter contains descriptions of violence.

Yuto opened his eyes and was greeted by the same harsh sunlight that had seeped into his room for the past five days and found himself in the same position he was in yesterday morning, with his arms around Inoo’s waist and hugging him closely. Feeling himself become embarrassed, Yuto slowly went to remove them, but Inoo stirred awake.

“I’m sorry,” Yuto said shyly, “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice…”

Almost as if it were a replay of yesterday, Yuto was expecting Inoo to call him out on his hugging, but he was instead surprised when Inoo turned around to face him and smiled.

“I wish we could stay like this forever…” he said as he snuggled closer to Yuto.

Yuto smiled back at Inoo hesitantly. He still had some doubts about Inoo and wondered why he didn’t appear to have a needle mark on his arm, but he decided to put those worries out of his mind and concentrate on this current moment, at least for now.

“Me too,” Yuto replied as he ran his hand through Inoo’s hair.

Inoo sighed as he looked away from Yuto, “we only have two more days here…”

Yuto bit his lip, unsure of what answer to give, “you don’t know that,” he replied, “you don’t know what happens after the seven days are up. We might be able to still see each other.”

But the truth was, Yuto didn’t know the answer either. He had no idea if this was the last time he was going to see Inoo, or if they were potentially going to see each other when that day arrived. And the thought of this being one of the last days he might see Inoo slightly scared Yuto and the unknown about what lay ahead.

“Well, I have to get the day started,” Inoo said as he looked back towards Yuto and smiled, slowly getting out of the bed and straightening out his hair as best as possible with his hands, “I’ll see you out there in a bit.”

Just as Inoo went to exit the cabin, Yuto called out to him.

“Oh... Inoo... wait a second.”

Inoo turned around from the door and faced Yuto.

“Thank you for staying with me last night, it made me feel better,” he said with a smile.

Inoo returned the smile to Yuto. “by the way, you can call me Kei,” he said as he turned the handle on the door and exited the cabin.

After showering and putting on his pair of clean clothes, folded in the same place he had found them every morning, Yuto exited his cabin and made his way towards the group, who all appeared to be there before he was. Unlike yesterday, Inoo was already there before him and appeared to be conversing with Takaki. Feeling some kind of irritation form his chest just looking at the two, Yuto looked over at Inoo with disdain and took a seat opposite him without even collecting his food, continuing to watch the two intently as he slumped in his chair. 

_ Why was Inoo talking to Takaki? He hadn’t spoken to anyone before here, so why was he...  _

“Yuto, are you okay?”

Yuto’s thoughts were immediately interrupted by Daiki’s question and he jumped back into reality.

“Of course I am,” he replied as he sat up properly, trying to avoid looking at Takaki and Inoo talking and looked over at Hikaru and Yabu, who he usually found himself in conversation with, but they were also off in their world. 

“I knew it, Yuto’s the first one to lose his mind,” said Chinen, looking over at Yuto with a smirk.

Yuto rolled his eyes, “please,” he said, feeling slightly annoyed by Chinen’s remark. He turned his focus back over to Takaki and Inoo, who were still in conversation. After a moment of watching them both, Yuto finally had enough and stood up.

“Inoo, can I talk to you?” 

Inoo stopped in the middle of his sentence and looked over at Yuto. He nodded as he sat up and followed him behind Daiki’s cabin, which was usually out of earshot of the group and where nobody would hear them.

“I said you could call me Kei… you don’t have to be so fo—"

“Why are you talking to Takaki?” asked Yuto as he folded his arms, staring straight at Inoo.

“Aren’t I allowed to talk to people here?” Inoo asked with a shrug.

Just don’t get too close to him…” Yuto pleaded with a sigh, feeling some kind of concern over Inoo. He knew he had no say in who he spoke to, but he didn’t like the idea of Inoo being cozy with Takaki of all people.

Inoo folded his arms and slightly smirked at Yuto, “do I sense some jealousy?”

“Of course not,” Yuto replied, shocked that Inoo would even accuse him of such a thing and slightly detesting the smile that had formed on his face, “I’m just worried… that’s all.”

“Is that so?”

Yuto sighed, exasperated at how Inoo was talking to him and taking his warning, “okay, well, I’m sorry for being cautious about the man who held a knife to my neck before I even knew him AND almost—"

“I get it… he has it out for you,” Inoo said with a light chuckle, “don’t worry about it, it’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” asked Yuto as he looked towards the ground, “he’s still the only one with a weapon, you know… I don’t want him to--”

“Do you feel special since you’re the only one he’s used it on?” Inoo remarked with the same smile he had before.

Yuto glared at Inoo as he closed the distance between them and interlaced his arms around Yuto’s neck. 

“Learn to take a joke, Yuto. You don’t have to be so on edge all the time. It’ll all be fine, I promise...”

Yuto smiled back at Inoo and also wrapped his arms around his waist, bringing him in closer.

“It’s so hard not to be on edge here though…” Yuto signed, “not when you don’t know anything about what your life was like before and I’m not even sure who I can trust here…”

Inoo appeared to have a slightly confused reaction to Yuto’s words.

“You can always trust me, right?” 

“Sure,” Yuto was quick with his answer, but that was honestly still something he was undecided on. 

_ Was Inoo someone he could completely trust? Yuto didn’t know for sure. _

\---

Night had already dimmed over the area, but like always, Yuto was never sure what time it was. Not that knowing the time mattered to him, as it still passed by slowly when there was not much else to do. Inoo was staying with him again tonight, and Yuto found that had also just become another thing that was now part of his routine as long as he lived here, although he didn’t know for how much longer he could see Inoo.

“I know you’re having some trust issues here…” said Inoo as he laid next to Yuto on the bed and took hold of his hand, “but this might be our last night together, can we just enjoy it together?”

Yuto smiled at Inoo, knowing he was right. He knew that this could potentially be one of the last nights they could spend together, so he needed to try to let go of any doubts he was having and enjoy what could be some of their last hours together.

“What do you think is gonna happen when everything comes to an end? Do you think we’ll go back to our normal lives?” Inoo said as he got under the covers and snuggled closer to Yuto.

Yuto sighed as he also got under the covers and cuddled up closer to Inoo too, a sudden feeling of sleepiness coming over him, “I don’t know… but I know we will see each other again.”

“Are you sure?” Inoo asked, looking back towards Yuto.

“I’m certain…” said Yuto, drifting off into sleep.

\---

Yuto felt like he’d only been asleep for a few seconds when he was awoken by a stern voice.

“Wake up.”

Yuto opened his eyes and noticed Takaki was pointing a blade right at his face.

“Takaki…” Yuto mumbled, adjusting his eyes to being awake.

Takaki was swift with the knife as he brought it against Yuto’s neck.

“Don’t make a noise, or you’ll regret it.”

Yuto nodded, understanding the order and not willing to push his luck after living with Takaki for almost a week. He watched as he pulled the knife away from his neck and stepped back into the glow of the moonlight that shone in from the window. It was then that Yuto noticed his white clothing was stained with a deep red colour and his eyes widened with fear as they darted to the left, noticing that Inoo was nowhere next to him in the bed.

“What have you done?” Yuto asked, making sure to keep his voice low, “where’s Inoo?”

“He’s fine,” Takaki said as he looked down at the knife, which Yuto also noticed was covered in a deep red, “but he might not be for much longer...”

Takaki saying that made Yuto sit up and pull his sheets off, but Takaki once again pointed the knife towards him.

“Not so fast…” 

“Are you going to hurt me?” Yuto asked, his eyes not moving from Takaki as he stayed put on the bed.

“Only if you do something stupid.” Takaki replied as he once again took the knife away, “but I mostly just want to keep you here while your boyfriend bleeds out.”

Yuto’s eyes still didn’t move from Takaki and he tried his best to remain as calm as possible, thinking about how he could get out of this situation. He knew that every minute that went by could mean life or death for Inoo, although he didn’t know how badly he was hurt and if Takaki was just exaggerating.

“You know how there’s someone here who knows why we were here and doesn’t have their memories erased?” Takaki asked curiously.

Yuto nodded, waiting for an opportunity to somehow subdue him but he didn’t appear to be showing any signs of letting his guard down, as all of his focus was on Yuto too.

“Well, I’m sure it’s Inoo,” replied Takaki.

“Really?” asked Yuto. He tried to sound shocked, but he knew he had been having his doubts about Inoo over the last few days, “that can’t be true.”

“Well, I’m convinced it’s him…” said Takaki, finally looking away from Yuto and out towards the window opposite his bed, “it was like he was silently analysing all of us over the last week…”

“I don’t think so…” replied Yuto, finding an opportunity with Takaki being distracted as he slowly made his way out of the bed in a way that didn’t make a noise, “a few days ago, you thought it was me…”

“But can you imagine it?” asked Takaki with a slightly mocking tone in his voice, “that was the one person you fell for here? Really, Yuto? How stupid can—”

Takaki turned back towards the bed but discovered Yuto wasn’t there. Instead, he was behind him, edging towards the door.

Yuto’s immediate flight or fight response kicked in as his eyes once again met with Takaki and he shoved him against the wall, making sure to temporarily stun him and run out the door. Running out into the open in the quiet dead of the night suddenly made Yuto realise the vulnerable situation he was in. He looked around frantically, looking for any possible sign of where Inoo could be, knowing Takaki would be after him at any moment. Noticing the door to Inoo’s cabin ajar, Yuto rushed towards it without a second thought and was shocked by the scene that greeted him.

Before his eyes was Inoo lying motionless in a pool of blood. Overcome with emotions and not knowing whether to feel angry, upset, sad or a mixture of both, Yuto ran over to Inoo’s motionless body and fell to the ground, started to shake him gently to wake him up or show him any signs of life.

“Hey… Kei, wake up!” he pleaded, trying to keep his voice low but he was sure Takaki knew where he was if he followed the trail. He looked over Inoo and noticed the only trauma he seemed to have was bleeding from his abdomen area. Lifting his shirt, Yuto observed a stab wound and immediately tried to stop the flow of blood. Feeling a slight glimmer of hope as his hands pressed against Inoo’s, he was still warm but knowing the situation he was in, he was unsure of how to even get medical aid.

“C’mon…” Yuto begged, feeling tears form in his eyes but it was still no use. Inoo was still motionless and didn’t appear to be showing any signs of movement. 

Yuto heard footsteps behind him. Fearing the worst, he looked behind him and saw Takaki in the doorway. He immediately stood up, feeling threatened by his presence and now more than ever wondering why he was the only one who appeared to have a weapon in this strange situation they were in.

“He was way too easy… didn’t even put up a fight…”

Takaki started to walk closer towards Yuto as he glared at him through tears, refusing to move or be threatened by him.

“Are you also gonna be easy?” asked Takaki as he stood in front of Yuto and smirked, pointing the knife towards his chest, “the best thing about this is… everyone’s only gonna notice what happened the morning when it’s way too—”

“I’m gonna kill you!” Yuto shouted, reaching for the knife in Takaki’s hand and not caring who heard him anymore. Takaki did his best to wrestle the knife back in the struggle, but Yuto ultimately was the one who gained control of it in the end, pointing it at Takaki’s neck.

“Get out of here before I hurt you!” yelled Yuto, not paying attention to how raised his voice was now.

“You think I’m gonna be easy to take down?” asked Takaki with a smirk, “I don’t think you have the guts to do anything.”

The sneer that had formed on Takaki’s face irritated Yuto and without any hesitation or even thinking, quickly stabbed the knife into his chest, pushing it in as deep as he could. Takaki was surprised by Yuto’s actions and fell to the ground.

“Why would you…”

“I said I’d kill you!” shouted Yuto, climbing on top of Takaki and digging the knife in again, noticing this time he had closed his eyes and stopped moving, just like Inoo. He pulled it out and was going to repeat his actions but felt someone grab him from behind.

“Get off him! You’re gonna kill him!” he heard Yamada yell as he tried to pull him off Takaki, but it was no use. Yuto was so determined on hurting the person who had hurt the closest to him that he didn’t even realise that the other five people had gathered and were now watching the scene unfold.

All of a sudden, a calm voice amongst the chaos and noise spoke up in a stern voice that immediately stopped Yuto in his tracks.

“Okay, I’m raising the alarm. This experiment is over!” 

Yuto turned around to see who had spoken, but he couldn’t make out who it was through all the adrenaline going through his body. He was sure that this voice belonged to the person who knew the reason why they were even here in the first place, maybe the person who still had their memories.

“Experiment? What do you--” Yuto started to say, but was quickly stopped by a pinch from behind on his arm and he fell into unconsciousness.


End file.
